Calderwood took Hodgkiss on loan without seeing him play

GIVEN that his team sit second bottom of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League and a section of supporters are calling for his head, it was pretty brave of Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood to admit yesterday that, for the first time in his career, he has signed someone without ever seeing them play.

Jared Hodgkiss arrived at Pittodrie on loan from Premiership side West Bromwich Albion just before the transfer window closed at the end of August. Calderwood has revealed that he never watched Hodgkiss in action before bringing him north and relied on the recommendation of West Brom manager Tony Mowbray.

But, after the 21-year-old right-back put in an impressive performance at Celtic Park last weekend in what was his ever first SPL start, Calderwood is convinced he was right to trust Mowbray. The Aberdeen manager is expected to keep faith with Hodgkiss again this afternoon as Mowbray's former club, Hibernian, visit Pittodrie and he said: "Jared has done great for us. When I first heard about him I phoned Tony Mowbray to ask him his opinion. Tony is an honest guy and a good football man and he'll tell you the truth about someone.

"He told me that Jared would struggle to get into his side at this moment in time because of his size. But he said that he was a wonderful professional and that he would definitely be in his side if it was based on football ability alone. Tony has been exactly right as he has done a brilliant job for us."

Hodgkiss – initially brought to Pittodrie as cover for Richard Foster, who started the season in the right-back position – was one of a number of Aberdeen players who performed well against the SPL champions last weekend but the Dons lost 3-2 and headed home with no points after Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink scored in the last minute.

Calderwood is adamant his side will see off Hibs and get their season back on track so long as they reach the standards they did last Saturday. "I'm looking for my players to perform as they did last week against Celtic, although we have to cut out those careless mistakes that are killing us big time at the moment," he added. "If we show the same confidence, quality and determination that was on display against Celtic, we will win."

But that's not to say Calderwood is not anticipating a tough encounter from Mixu Paatelainen's side, who go into the game on the back of a disappointing 3-0 home defeat against Rangers. "It is two good teams that aren't playing to their potential right now," said the Aberdeen manager.

"Mixu has had to change things about this season with a few new players coming in, similar to what we have had to do. Like Aberdeen, Hibernian is also a big club with high expectations that wants to be at the right end of the table. We will be attacking as we know this is a game we can win if we are on form and we also want the fans to see us playing attractive football at our home ground. That's not to say I wouldn't take a scrappy 1-0 victory."

Hibs youngster Lewis Stevenson admits that the Easter Road team will travel north a little less confident than they were before losing three goals in last weekend's televised game. "It was a bit of a blow to our confidence," he explained. "We'd had two good wins the two weeks before, so I think going into the game we thought we could play positively and get a decent result.

"But it didn't really happen on the day. Ian Murray played pretty well, but the rest of us knew we could have played better. The manager said we didn't play well in the first 20 minutes. I thought we did all right when it was still 0-0."

Having been less involved under Paatelainen than he was when John Collins was manager, Stevenson is now simply happy to be back in the first-team squad. Whether he is there as a left-back or a left-sided midfielder is secondary – either position will do when Hibs run out at Pittodrie today. He added: "They've not got off to the best of starts, but neither have we.

"This time last year we started flying, then we went 12 games without a win. So anything can really happen in the league and I don't think anything really pans out until Christmas when you know who is really going to be challenging."